Total pages in book: 362
Estimated words: 347293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1736(@200wpm)___ 1389(@250wpm)___ 1158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 347293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1736(@200wpm)___ 1389(@250wpm)___ 1158(@300wpm)
I wasn’t breathing.
We were failing. My hand went to my stomach. Our future was slipping between our fingers. They would all die while Kolis hid. Rhahar. Our soldiers. Possibly even Attes. Then Rhain and Bele, once they swarmed the bluff. Their bodies would fall, just as Kars and Crolee had. Their bones would join…
They’re called the Bonelands.
I looked down, the blood dripping from my fingers darkening the soil and rock.
The land was littered with those who’d fallen in the war with the Ancients, the remains of gods, long-since-forgotten mortal warriors, Primals, and…
And dragons.
Suddenly, I saw the Shade in the Dying Woods—the one I’d touched. How it had started to come back to life.
There was a reason I’d suggested the Bonelands to Ash. Why I had stood on the Rise looking at the Shades after I’d brought life back to the Shadowlands.
Death couldn’t break the bonds of Life’s touch.
I looked at Ash. “I’ll be right back.”
He shoved a god from his sword, and his head jerked toward me. Eather swelled in me as I stepped toward the edge. He shouted my name, and it carried on the wind when I shadowstepped to the field below, near Kars’ body.
Locked in their own fights, no one noticed me as I stalked forward. Dropping to my knees beside the godling, I slammed my hands onto the bloodied grass, eather swelling inside me and combining with all the yawning hopelessness and bitter desperation I’d felt moments ago. But I channeled everything in me—the suffocating fear and soul-destroying shame for what had been done to me, for what I’d done to the mortal realm—and all of it built inside me.
Then, I let go.
Because no more would die. We would not fail. Our future wasn’t lost.
The edges of my vision turned silver and gold, snapping my head back. “I am done with this!” A scream of rage erupted from deep within me, releasing the Primal essence—unleashing my will as I summoned the fallen gods and dragons. “All of this.”
All across the field, heads turned to me. Soldiers in crimson and dark gray froze as my hands sank through the grass and into the soil, and eather whirled down my arms. Attes turned, and Phanos staggered back, his bloody mouth dropping open when the eather receded from his veins. Silvery-white light drenched the ground, rippling out from my hands.
Beneath me and all around, the ground trembled and then roared. Deep fissures appeared across the sacred land, spreading like veins, opening and spewing soil and rocks into the air.
A heartbeat passed.
Then two.
Thin, bleached-white fingers appeared in the clouds of dust radiating from the fissures. They dug into the disturbed soil, clawing their way free. Fleshless arms appeared from the darkness. Hairless skulls. And they kept coming, a wave of bone and tattered tunics, bearing the sigils of forgotten kingdoms, their bony hands lifting ancient, rusted swords. The great hills deep within the forests shuddered, uprooting trees and shedding centuries of sediment until foot-long, serrated teeth became visible. Wings of cartilage and delicate bones lifted into the air. The wind answered in a whisper, two words that echoed over and over as an army rose.
Meyaah Liessa.
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
The army of bones held still as soil continued falling. They waited for orders.
They waited for me.
Their Queen.
“Protect what is mine. Destroy the crimson soldiers,” I hissed, eather pounding into each word as my will poured into my army. “Destroy the crimson draken and those who came from the sea, then return to your rest.”
All across the field and into the forest, the army swept forward, and dragons rose into the air, their bones creaking and grinding together. Their roars were deeper, more guttural, sending a wounded Diaval fleeing toward the eastern mountains.
The screams that came brought a smile to my face as I rose, essence crackling from my fingertips. Across the field, a wave of red was falling into the grass, littering the ground.
A flash of crimson-and-gold snagged my attention. My gaze shot to the ruins of the Temple. I caught a fleeting glimpse of Kolis’s silhouette right before he slipped through the half-crumbling archway of the old Temple.
I walked forward, a burst of eather rushing through me as Diaval dove through the thick clouds, releasing a stream of fire that pounded the field, igniting everything in its path, killing both crimson and black soldiers alike.
Rage exploded in my gut. My vision narrowed on the draken, the realm fading into a red haze of fury. Instinct took over, and I inhaled, pulling eather from the realm. All across the field, tiny silvery dots appeared and pulsed. They raced toward me in a flash, joining the crackling essence gathering around my palm as I stepped forward. Thrusting out my hand, a spinning, crackling stream of silver-and-gold eather erupted from my palm. The raw Primal power slammed into the pretty-haired fucker’s underside.